Among the citizens of this county who have had much to do with the community’s development from a civic as well as an educational point of view is A. C. Hentz of Marion.
Archibald C. Hentz was born in Lawrence County, Illinois, near Chauncey to Daniel W. Hentz and Elizabeth Wagoner. After a struggle to obtain an education, he attended Danville Normal College and prepared for teaching.
He married Miss Emma G. Wathen on July 13, 1893 in Lawrence County, Illinois.
In 1893 he came to this county and located in Herrin, where he became head of the schools and later city attorney, serving with marked distinction. In the 1900 census, the Hentz couple was living at Herrin’s Prairie. Archibald was listed as a 33 year old school teacher. Emma was 28 and the couple claim to have had three children with none surviving. There are eight lodgers living in the home.
In 1902, he took a position at Marion in the office of Sheriff H. S. Harris as office deputy, later was Assistant State Parole Agent at Chester penitentiary, afterwards for nine years District Game Warden.
His wife, Emma Wathen Hentz, died in the same year of 1902.
In 1904, A.C. married Miss Jennie R. Hendrickson of Marion, daughter of William and Rosalie Hendrickson.
Hentz was a member of the Williamson County Bar Association.
He helped organize in 1906, the Marion Citizens Trust and Banking Company and the Williamson County Loan & Improvement Association, holding important positions in both. Hentz served as charter Director of the Citizens Trust when it formed in 1907.
In the 1910 census, Archibald and Jennie were living in a home they owned at 206 S. Van Buren Street in Marion. He was then employed as a game warden and Jennie was a music teacher.
On March 7, 1911 when the First Methodist Church decided to build a new church, board member Hentz made the motion and later served on the finance committee. The following year he compiled a written history of the early church. During this period, Jennie served as organist for the church.
In 1913 he acquired a controlling interest in the Republican Leader of Marion, the official Republican County paper, taking editorial and business management.
In 1915, W.O. Paisley and son, Oldham Paisley, purchased the Leader Corporation from him which later developed into the Marion Daily Republican.
His acquaintance in southern Illinois was extensive. He was a member of the Methodist church, and in politics was a staunch Republican, always taking active lead at election time.
In the campaign of 1918, he was secretary of the county central committee and largely through his efforts the county rolled up a record majority of near 2,000.
In 1919, Archibald and Jennie moved to Springfield, Illinois where he was employed as clerk/secretary for the State Index Department with the Secretary of State. Before the year ended, the couple divorced and Jennie returned to Marion.
By 1922 he was employed as a clerk with the Secretary of State and by 1923 was married to a female by the name of Julia L. Hentz. By 1925 he started working with the Securities Division of the Secretary of State’s office and by 1928 was an auditor for this division.
He appears to have held the auditor’s position into the 1930’s when he retired and returned to his birth place in Lawrence County, Illinois, living in Birds Village.
In the 1940 census, A.C. was 73 years old, retired and now had another wife 23 years his junior named Susan Hentz.
A.C. Hentz passed away at Vincennes, Indiana at the age of 74 on April 20, 1941. He was interred at Mt. Calvary Cemetery.
Fraternally he was an Elk, K. of P. and Modern Woodman, besides holding membership in numerous civic organizations that benefit the community.
Sam’s Notes:
Jennie Hendrickson Hentz was born in Marion on October 3, 1871 to William Hendrickson and Rosalie Aikman. Both sides of the family were early pioneers to Williamson County.
Mrs. Hentz was a graduate of Marion High School and the Boston Conservatory of Music. She was a retired music teacher and organist for the First Methodist Church.
She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Marion Woman’s Club, Marion Business and Professional Women’s Club, Marion Order of the Eastern Star, Pioneer Daughters, Marion Carnegie Library and the Williamson County Historical Society.
After her divorce from A.C. in 1919, she never remarried.
In 1962, Jennie had been living at the Hotel State but was infirmed and moved to Hillview Nursing home in Vienna, Illinois where she passed away at age 91 on October 16, 1962.
Mrs. Hentz left a sister, Mrs. Allen Capron Sr. of Visalia, Calif.; foster-sister, Mrs. Ruth Kiger of Landers, Wyo.; nieces Mrs. Edith Norris and Mrs. Rosalie Dacy of St Louis; and nephews, Fred Raybourn of the Panama Canal Zone, Roy and Carl Raybourn of Marion.
Private family services were held in the Valhalla Chapel of Memories in St Louis. Burial was in Rose Hill Cemetery in Marion. The Mitchell Funeral Home of Marion handled the burial service.
(Data extracted from “Williamson County in the World War”; Federal Census Records; Marion City Directories; Ancestry.com; compiled by Sam Lattuca on 07/02/2013)